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Language and Minority Rights: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Language 2nd Edition
Author(s): Stephen May (Author)
- Publisher: Routledge
- Publication Date: 16 Nov. 2011
- Edition: 2nd
- Language: English
- Print length: 448 pages
- ISBN-10: 0805863079
- ISBN-13: 9780805863079
Book Description
The second edition addresses new theoretical and empirical developments since its initial publication, including the burgeoning influence of globalization and the relentless rise of English as the current world language. May’s broad position, however, remains largely unchanged. He argues that the causes of many of the language-based conflicts in the world today still lie with the nation-state and its preoccupation with establishing a ‘common’ language and culture via mass education. The solution, he suggests, is to rethink nation-states in more culturally and linguistically plural ways while avoiding, at the same time, essentializing the language-identity link. This edition, like the first, adopts a wide interdisciplinary framework, drawing on sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, sociology, political theory, education and law. It also includes new discussions of cosmopolitanism, globalization, the role of English, and language and mobility, highlighting the ongoing difficulties faced by minority language speakers in the world today.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“This is a masterful book―perhaps the most comprehensive, nuanced, and detailed treatment of minority language rights on an international scale in recent years. Clear, balanced, cogently argued, and remarkable in its depth and scope, Stephen May’s Language and Minority Rights represents a major contribution to both scholarship and practice in the field.”– Teresa McCarty, Alice Wiley Snell Professor of Education Policy Studies, Arizona State University
“This interdisciplinary volume presents a provocative, comprehensive analysis of issues related to linguistic pluralism…. May addresses arguments about ethnicity and nationalism, social and political theory, education, law, and history as well as the sociology of language and sociolinguistics. A wealth of examples drawn from communities world-wide illustrates his points. Accessibly written and extensively referenced, Language and Minority Rights is an excellent resource for students, teachers and researchers in the fields of anthropology, sociology, sociolinguistics, political science and education.”– Erica McClure Anthropology & Education Quarterly 2003
“This is a very important book and should be required reading for students, scholars, policy makers and others interested in linguistic pluralism.” – CHOICE
About the Author
Stephen May is Professor of Education in the School of Critical Studies in Education, Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, New Zealand